What Is StepUp Travel?
StepUp Travel is a travel classifieds site established to allow local enterprises and individuals to publish web-page advertisements of unique cultural services, activities, and accommodations they offer. By using StepUp Travel and connecting directly with locals, travelers are able to discover more obscure and fascinating activities, while also helping direct money toward the people who make their culture what it is.
Concept
StepUp Travel was founded in 2005 to address two purposes: to help travelers immerse themselves in the culture
of their destination and to help local service providers offering unique cultural activities, services, and
accommodations more easily to the traveler.
Aligning itself with the United Nations ST-EP initiative (Sustainable Tourism-Eliminating Poverty),
StepUp Travel prides itself in being an open marketplace for the travel industry, granting equal access to all
service providers and helping redistribute wealth in a world that suffers from broadening inequalities.
Vision
StepUp Travel's vision is to empower local people, organizations, and travelers to work together to promote quality responsible travel experiences and to emphasize the importance of personal exchanges, deeper cultural understanding, genuine benefit to local communities, preservation of the environment, and ultimately a more equitable world.
Mission
- To provide a premier online marketing tool for small tourism providers in order to increase their visibility and revenue.
- To promote responsible tourism practices by providers and travelers.
- To build a trusted network for responsible travelers to meet one another, share experiences, and advocate for local people and travel in developing countries.